IASA Guatemala school

Extract from a letter of Etay Benovich, projector of IASA – Guatemala school

Over the past 8 months, we have truly made a great something out of nothing. Whereas last year there was no IASA middle school, now there is a thriving, diverse educational community working hand-in-hand with the disadvantaged Guatemala Elementary School. Guatemala Elementary School students participate in Community Service together with IASA middle school students, IASA educators provide teacher mentoring to Guatemala School staff, Guatemala teachers adopted the IASA middle school’s model and now offer elective enrichment courses to students, and thanks to IASA’s influence, the Guatemala School has increased 1st grade enrollment for next September.

The IASA middle school itself has been an immense success. Over 330 students applied for the 60 spots available in next year’s 7th grade class. The students are active learners: experimenting, discussing, creating, and performing. The heterogeneous group—secular and religious Jews, together with Christian and Muslim Arabs, students from privileged homes and children from disadvantaged backgrounds—are learning to respect diversity and difference of opinion from a young age.

We are deeply grateful for the Matanel Foundation’s critical support for this important educational enterprise.

Yosef, a third-year student, from the graduation ceremony of the Introduction to Psychology course at Tel Aviv University

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It is difficult to describe in words this past year. Nonetheless, if we try we will probably think of Freud, defense mechanisms, sleep, developmental stages, types of parenting, first impressions, decision making, learning, the brain, and more and more.